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Manufacturers are bringing selected production work in-house because digital fabrication—especially 3D printing—can make low-volume, complex or customized parts and production aids without the tooling and supplier lead times conventional production may require. The shift is selective, not a wholesale replacement for established manufacturing: whether it pays depends on the part, production volume, quality requirements and the company’s ability to run the workflow.
What does bringing production in-house mean?
It means making certain parts or manufacturing aids at a company’s own facility rather than relying entirely on an outside supplier. In this context, on-demand digital fabrication chiefly refers to additive manufacturing (AM), commonly called 3D printing. A digital design is used to produce an item as needed, which can be useful when demand is irregular, designs change often, or conventional tooling is expensive or inflexible.
This does not necessarily mean relocating an entire product line. The clearest applications are production aids such as jigs and grippers, prototypes, customized components and selected end-use parts. Advanced manufacturing can also make production more flexible and customizable, including for small quantities and potentially at more locations, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). That is a possible route to more local production—not evidence that 3D printing alone is reversing globalization. GAO’s 2025 report on advanced manufacturing also discusses broader U.S. manufacturing strategy and the trade deficit in advanced technology goods, which exceeded $200 billion in 2023; that figure is macroeconomic context, not proof that additive manufacturing caused reshoring.
Why use digital fabrication for selected work?
Make complex or customized parts without conventional tooling
Additive manufacturing is especially relevant when production volumes are modest, part designs are complex, or customers need variations. If a job would otherwise require costly tooling, producing it digitally can reduce the need to commit to that tooling before the design or demand is established. It can also make it easier to revise a part or adapt a tool to a particular production task.
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Shorten the path from design to a usable part
Making a prototype or production aid on site can make iteration more convenient than sending each revision through an external supplier. An in-house capability may also help a manufacturer respond to a disruption or a shortage for parts that are suitable for printing. Those advantages depend on having the right machine, materials, design skills and validation process available; digital fabrication does not automatically make every part faster or cheaper.
Produce aids tailored to a factory’s work
Tools such as grippers and jigs can be designed around a specific task, machine or component. BMW says it has used 3D printers since 1991 and now prints production parts, tools and work aids. Jens Ertel, head of BMW’s Additive Manufacturing Campus, said the company can produce its own production aids and handling robots quickly and flexibly, adapt them to specific requirements and optimize their weight. Those are BMW’s own descriptions of its operations, not independent measurements of the benefits.
What are manufacturers making in-house?
BMW: production aids and robot grippers
BMW Group reported in 2024 that it produces more than 400,000 3D-printed parts per year worldwide. More than 300,000 were produced at its Additive Manufacturing Campus in 2023. BMW’s examples include robot grippers made in-house, including a double-gripper design at its Landshut plant. The figures and examples are company-reported; they show a substantial production use case, not a cost comparison with conventional sourcing. BMW’s account of 3D printing in production describes the applications and reported output.
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HP reports that agricultural equipment manufacturer AGCO expanded its use of 3D printing from jigs and prototypes to end-use parts. HP also says Blue-White Industries, a pump manufacturer, moved from fully outsourced injection molding to in-house Multi Jet Fusion production, making hundreds of parts. These are customer examples published by HP, a technology vendor; they establish reported applications, not independently audited savings or a general result for other manufacturers.
HP’s account quotes Blue-White Industries marketing director Taylor Gledhill saying printed parts let the company test designs under real-world loads without investing in expensive tooling up front. HP also reports one prototype that was quoted at $120,000 and printed for $3,200. The account does not detail the part, project scope or basis of comparison, so the figures should not be read as a typical cost ratio or a promise of savings. HP’s account of local manufacturing examples contains its descriptions of AGCO and Blue-White Industries.
When does in-house fabrication make business sense?
There is no universal break-even production volume in the available sources. A practical make-or-buy decision compares the full in-house workflow with the actual alternative, including supplier costs and lead times. Consider these factors together:
- Volume and demand: Estimate annual quantities, variation in demand and the mix of parts. A process suited to intermittent, low-volume jobs may not suit a steady, high-volume production run.
- Part geometry and customization: Ask whether the design is complex, frequently customized or costly to tool conventionally—and whether printing can meet its functional requirements.
- Total cost: Include equipment, software, materials, labor, post-processing, quality validation and inventory—not just the material cost of a printed part.
- Lead time and iteration: Weigh the value of producing or revising a part locally against supplier turnaround and the time needed to prepare and finish printed parts.
- Quality, safety and regulation: Establish what inspection, qualification and documentation the part requires, particularly when a failure could affect safety or regulated production.
- Skills and capacity: Account for design expertise, material knowledge, printer optimization, equipment utilization and the capacity needed if demand grows.
- Material use and waste: Compare the full material requirements and scrap of the proposed workflow with the alternative. Do not assume that printing is inherently more sustainable.
The U.S. GAO, HP and the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) discuss different aspects of advanced manufacturing and adoption; their cited material does not provide an independently comparable cost dataset or a break-even threshold that applies across manufacturers. The decision therefore needs to be made at the level of the part and production workflow.
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Equipment is only one part of implementation. DSIT’s 2025 study combined a bespoke survey, interviews and a qualitative component involving five small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Greater Manchester. It identifies perceived lack of applicability, skills and talent shortages, cost and uncertain returns, required business changes, and safety, security and regulatory concerns. It also describes ongoing needs for design skills, material expertise, print optimization and quality assessment, as well as difficulties scaling from prototypes to production.
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Adoption figures in the same report are regional, not a global estimate: 17.1% of SMEs in North-West England had adopted 3D printing, with most using it at low or moderate capacity; the report gives 11% for the rest of the UK. Those figures describe adoption in the study’s UK context, not the share of manufacturers worldwide that have brought production in-house.
Material limits and waste also require attention. In discussing post-installation sustainability challenges, the DSIT report says up to one-third of materials may become scrap. That is the report’s context-specific figure, not a rate that should be applied to all printers, processes or materials. DSIT’s study of 3D-printing adoption by SMEs details its methods and reported barriers.
What the evidence does—and does not—show
Company and vendor examples show that manufacturers are using additive manufacturing for real production work, from factory aids to selected end-use parts. They do not show that bringing every part in-house is less expensive, more reliable or environmentally preferable. Broader claims need to be judged against the specific part, the conventional alternative and the evidence behind each comparison.
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For example, a 2025 furniture masking-plug case study published in Manufacturing Letters estimates up to 99% lower inventory costs, 17% immediate CO2 savings projected to reach 65% by 2030, and 65% fewer backlog orders. Those estimates belong to that particular case study; they are not general outcomes for manufacturers adopting additive manufacturing. The case study on distributed additive manufacturing sets out that specific application.
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